A Father's Pride
by Ellipsis the Great
Summary: Somehow a kid!Kirk shows up on the Enterprise. Problem? Captain Kirk is still himself...fully summary inside. For a request on the Star Trek Kink Meme on Live Journal.


_**A Father's Pride**_

_A one-shot by Ellipsis the Great_

_**Summary: **__For a request on the Star Trek Kink Meme on Live Journal. 'Somehow a kid!Kirk shows up on the Enterprise. Problem? Captain Kirk is still himself and looks just as out of his depth as everyone else in the face of a little him. Jim, with help from Bones and Spock, takes care of little!Kirk until they can figure out how to fix it. Bonus: Little!Kirk mistakes adult!Kirk for his father, thinks he's traveled through time, and tries to warn them about the Kelvin.' No real pairings._

_**Disclaimer:**__ Star Trek belongs to J.J. Abrams, Gene Roddenberry, and all those other cool cats who own it. All I own is the plot!_

_**Rating:**__ T just in case_

"Are we out?" Jim demands when the _Enterprise_ finally stills.

"Yes, Captain." Sulu says.

"Damned ion storms." Jim says under his breath, then turns. "Uhura, I want reports from _everyone_. Find out if there is anything strange going on."

Uhura nods, turning and beginning to carry out her orders but forced to stop when a call comes in from Engineering.

"_Captain, it's Scotty_." Scotty's voice says. "_The ion storm…ye need tae get tae sick bay. Poor kid's fainted, but…_"

"Kid?" Jim asks. "Did you say _kid_?"

"_Yes, sir. I donnae know wha' happened—one second we're all breathin' a sigh o' relief, an' th' next there's a wee bairn stuck in a Jeffries Tube._" Scotty says. "_It's…Captain, unless the kid's lyin'…he says he's _you_, sir._"

Jim blinks. "Ah. O…okay. I'll…go to sick bay, then."

"_Jim, it's me._" Bones' voice, now. "_I'll assume Scotty's already called you; I can confirm that this kid is you. Younger, but I've got a complete DNA match. I'm running some tests, now, to see where he came from and how he got here._"

"Right. Thanks, Bones. I'll be down in a second." Jim wonders, for just a moment, what it must be like on other starships—ones who don't have crazy shit happening every other day (and he knows they exist _somewhere_). He shakes the thought off almost as soon as it comes, though, because he knows he wouldn't trade his ship or crew for anything. "Mr. Spock, you had better come, too. You have the Comm, Mr. Sulu."

"Yes, sir." Sulu says.

Jim goes to the turbolift, Spock falling into step behind them. They are quiet all the way down and to the sick bay, although he's sure Spock wants to say something.

"Thought you meant you'd be down _today_." Bones grumbles as they enter. "He's starting to wake up."

Jim waves him off, going over to the kid's bedside, and _Christ_ had he really been that small at some point? Not that the kid is all that small—he looks like he's eight or nine, and Jim had always been a scrawny kid but never a small one—but still. How strange to think that, at one point of his life, his feet hadn't been trying to hang off the edges of the bio-beds; had, in fact, been a foot or two short of the edge.

The boy's eyes flutter open (wow, his eyes really _had_ been a little bluer when he was a kid) and flicker around the room for a moment before coming to rest on Jim.

Jimmy's jaw drops a little as the two of them stare at each other, him thinking God only knows what while his older counterpart maps out the parts of himself he has forgotten about over the years—the snaggletooth his mother had had removed when he was twelve, the scar from some misadventure or other that had faded to near invisibility.

Jimmy, ignoring Bones' huffing, pulls himself out from under the blanket and goes to his knees on the bed, a trembling hand reaching out and touching Jim's cheek like he's afraid he'll get burned by it.

"Dad?" His voice is small and quiet and Jim is so shocked by what Jimmy said that he doesn't answer. Jimmy must assume that that means he's right. "Dad, I'm James. I'm your son. I don't know how I got here but you've gotta listen to me—don't go on the _Kelvin_. Dad, it's gonna run into a Romulan ship and you'll die and please, please, please don't go on the _Kelvin_, Dad, let somebody else's dad die."

"Oh, kid." Jim says, and pulls him into a hug. Jimmy lets out a shaky sigh, but squeezes back with so much force that Jim thinks that must be why his heart feels like it's breaking. "I'm not your dad, Jimbo. I'm so sorry, but I'm not George Kirk. I'm James, too. You didn't go back, you came forward. Christ, kid, I'm sorry."

Jimmy, God help him, starts crying into his neck; broken little sobs that wrack both of their bodies. "I thought…you were Dad. I thought…I wanted to warn him so…Mom and Sam would stop being sad."

"I know." Jim says, one hand tangling in the child's hair. "God, kid, do I know."

And then they're both quiet for a while, as Jimmy tries to stop crying and Jim tries to keep from crying.

"Captain." Spock's voice is surprisingly soft. "I believe the doctor needs to run some tests, so that we might ascertain the child's origin and how to return him to where he belongs."

Jim lets go, hastily wiping his eyes with a sleeve. "Right, of course. Um, Jimmy, this is my First Officer, Spock, and my Chief Medical Officer, Leonard McCoy."

Jimmy sniffles and waves without looking up. "Hi."

"I'm going to have to take some blood, Jimmy. You'll feel a little sting." Bones says, pulling out a hypo, and Jim is a little put out to note the tenderness Bones uses when treating his younger self.

Jimmy, to his credit, doesn't so much as flinch. Jim can't remember ever being so blasé about getting a shot.

"Does he need to be here for all of the tests?" Jim asks.

"No." Bones says. "But—"

"Then why don't I give you a tour of the ship?" Jim asks Jimmy before Bones can stop him.

"Captain, I believe that to be inadvisable." Spock says.

"Captain?" Jimmy looks up. "Did he just call you Captain?"

"Yep. I'm a starship captain." Jim says with a smirk.

Jimmy scowls. "Our dad _died_ in space! Are you stupid?"

Jim flinches. "I, uh…"

"You _idiot_." Jimmy says, beating his little fists against Jim's chest. "You big fat stupid _idiot_! Why the fuck would you—"

"Hey!" Bones thumps the kid on the back of the head (lightly, Jim can say from personal experience). "Watch your mouth, young man."

Jimmy shuts his mouth but glares defiantly at the three of them, jaw clenched. It's a look that Spock and Bones both recognize, for all that it is slightly less perfected and mature on Jimmy than it is on Jim.

"Look, buddy…" Jim says. "I…I know it seems stupid, but…it's not space that killed him. He could have died anywhere. And it isn't space that made Mom…how she is. I love being up here."

Jimmy shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away sullenly. "Stupid."

"Well…why don't I take you on that tour? You can decide for yourself, that way." Jim says.

Jimmy wrinkles his nose, but shrugs. "Fine, I guess."

So Bones (reluctantly) lets them leave, fussing over Jimmy practically until the sick bay doors shut. Spock is following them for whatever reason, which seems to set Jimmy on edge if the way he keeps glancing back is anything to go by. Jim thinks it's kind of ironic that his child-self is so suspicious of the man he'd fought so hard to befriend.

Jimmy doesn't seem impressed by anything (Jim asks Spock in joking tones if he is really this stubborn, to which Spock replies with an upraised brow and "Affirmative, Captain.") until they reach the observation deck. And Jim thinks immediately that of course this should have been the first place he brought his younger self, because no matter how he's ever felt about being _in_ space, he has always at the same time been fascinated by it. And apparently his love for this room transcends time, because Jimmy breaks away from them almost as soon as they enter the room, pressing his nose against the window and staring out into the nothing.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Jim asks, joining Jimmy by the window and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah." Jimmy says, breathless.

A weight is lifted off of Jim's shoulders, and he realizes with a start that this whole time he has been seeking approval from…_himself_, which just has to be all kinds of fucked up.

So he clears his throat awkwardly and looks out of the window.

"Yeah."

(WHOWASTHATPOINTY-EAREDPAGEBREAK?)

"That's so fucking _cool_." Jimmy says, eyes wide, as Spock finishes explaining—in terms Jim's sure his younger self can't understand, because he can hardly understand it—how they believe he came to appear in Engineering.

"Language, kid." Bones grumps. "Fuck's sake."

Jimmy giggles, and exchanges a glance with Jim, who grins back at him. Jimmy has Bones completely pegged, by now, as a true blue mothering-type. Bones will probably deny it to his dying day, but Jim has _totally_ caught him straightening Jimmy's collar and brushing fingers through his messy blond hair.

"So how do I go back?" Jimmy asks.

"I believe we shall have to recreate the anomaly that brought you to us." Spock says. When Jimmy gives him a blank look, he actually deigns to explain in laymen's terms (Jim's starting to think his First Officer actually likes his younger self better, which is _so_ not fair). "We shall go through another ion storm."

Jimmy pales a little, and Jim wonders (not for the first time) how it had felt to be brought here. He doesn't remember ever going through this—maybe the storm erases his memory?—so he's curious. Did it hurt? Did it feel like falling off of that drill had? Was is scary? Adrenaline-inducing?

But then Jimmy looks up at hm, eyes wide, and he gives the boy—because he's just a boy, no matter how he got here or what he says—a reassuring smile, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing. Jim thinks about what's waiting for Jimmy at the other end of the ion storm.

He wishes they didn't have to send Jimmy back.

(WHOWASTHATPOINTY-EAREDPAGEBREAK?)

"Everybody ready?" Jim asks.

"Yeah." Jimmy says, but he still hasn't regained color in his cheeks.

Bones gives Jim that pushy, you-should-do-something-about-this look of his, so Jim nods at Spock to continue without them and pulls Jimmy aside.

"You gonna be okay, kiddo?" He asks, crouching down in front of Jimmy.

Jimmy is quiet, looking down at his shuffling feet.

"You can go ahead and ask whatever it is that's on your mind." Jim says.

Jimmy takes in a shaky breath. "I know…you're not and all, and…that it's kind of messed up." He says carefully. "But can I…for just a minute, can I…pretend you're my dad?"

Jim's throat clenches. Christ, that isn't at all what he had expected, and he wonders why he hadn't expected it, because he can remember how much he used to wish for his dad.

"Of…of course you can." He forces himself to say through the lump in his throat.

"Dad, I'm scared." Jimmy says, a tear streaming down his cheek. "I'm so scared."

Jim hesitates for a moment, then puts his arms around Jimmy and squeezes as hard as he dares. "It's okay to be scared, Jimbo. I get scared all the time."

Before Jimmy can answer, the ship starts bouncing around.

"We've hit the storm, Captain!" Sulu yells.

"_Dad_." Jimmy says.

"It's okay, Jimmy." Jim says. "It's okay."

"I don't want to go." Jimmy says, breath hitching.

"I don't want you to go." Jim replies, but he can actually _feel_ Jimmy starting to disappear.

"I love you, Dad." Jimmy says.

Jim's chest hurts. "I…I love you…I love you, too…son."

"Captain, we are almost through." Spock says.

"I'm proud of you." Jim whispers. "No matter what happens, and no matter what you do, Jimmy, just remember that I'm always, _always_ proud of you."

And then it's over, and Jim's arms are empty.

The End.

_A/N: Oh, geez, I almost made myself cry. OTL Well, um, I'm not totally happy with this because there are several loose ends, but I guess I'll leave the unanswered questions for you guys to answer for yourselves. Stories are a little more fun that way, anyhow, in my opinion. Hope the anon (and everyone else, of course) enjoyed it!_


End file.
